12 For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and haughty, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
For the day of the LORD of hosts will be on every one that is proud and lofty In this verse he confirms the same thing more fully and from the vehement manner in which he heaps up words, we may easily infer how bold was the wickedness which at that time abounded. But we shall not wonder that he labors so hard to subdue the arrogance of men, if we consider how difficult it is to bend the stubbornness of those who, relying on their wealth, are afraid of nothing, and who suppose that the design of their elevated rank is, that whatever they do shall pass unpunished. For even at the present day we experience how sensitive and passionate those men are who make arrogant claims for themselves, and how obstinately they reject all admonitions. And this is also the reason why the Prophet uses sharp language against theme instead of threatening vengeance, in general terms, against the whole nation. Yet it is not against the princes alone, whose high rank raised them far above other men, that his invectives are launched; for not only they, but even persons of the lowest rank, often swell with pride; and, as the common proverb runs, "Every man carries within him the heart of a king." In like manner, we find that even the basest persons, if you do but prick them with a pill, vomit out the poison of intolerable arrogance. Since, therefore, this vice was so widely spread, Isaiah includes both the highest and the lowest of the people, declaring that in proportion to the forbearance which God had exercised toward them is the severity of the impending judgment; for, in consequence of their abundance, their hearts had swollen to fierceness. Moreover, though the letter l, (lamed,) [1] which is the sign of the dative case, be sometimes superfluous, yet in this passage it retains its force; for it would appear that Isaiah appoints a fixed day, as usually happens in judicial trials. Accordingly, I interpret it to mean that God himself hath previously appointed a day on which proud men must be summoned to the judgment-seat of God, to receive a sentence of condemnation. We may also learn from these words that God avows himself to be the enemy of all the proud. This appointing of a day is therefore to the same effect as if God declared that he cannot endure men wickedly to indulge in pride, and that they who unduly exalt themselves cannot escape being crushed by his hand. And if our minds were sincerely convinced of this, who would not abhor pride, which provokes the anger of God against us? If any person choose rather to interpret (superbum et elatum) proud and lofty as in the neuter gender, meaning that which is proud and lofty, we must understand them to refer to the fortresses, bulwarks, and fortifications; but the rules of grammar do not admit of their being applied in any other way than to persons.
1 - lyhvh The natural rendering of "Quoniam dies Iehovae exercituum super omnem superbum et exelsum erit" appears to be what I have given above, for the day of the Lord of hosts will be on every one that is proud and lofty. But if Jehovae be in the dative, and not in the genitive case, the ambiguity might have been partly removed by some such collocation as the following: -- Quoniam Jehovae exercituum erit dies, which might have meant, For to the Lord of hosts there will be a day, or, the Lord of hosts will have a day; and such an emphatic meaning of the phrase must have been intended by our author. -- Ed
The day - This expression evidently denotes that the Lord would inflict severe punishment upon every one that was lofty. Such a severe infliction is called "the day of the Lord of hosts," because it would be a time when "he" would particularly manifest himself, and when "he" would be recognized as the inflicter of that punishment. "His" coming forth in this manner would give "character" to that time, and would be the prominent "event." The punishment of the wicked is thus freguently called "the day of the Lord;" Isaiah 13:6, Isaiah 13:9 : 'Behold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger,' etc.; Jeremiah 46:10 : 'The day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance.' Ezekiel 30:3; Zephaniah 1:7, Zephaniah 1:14; Joel 2:31; see also in the New Testament, 1-Thessalonians 5:2; 2-Peter 3:10.
Every one that is proud and lofty - Or, rather, every "thing" that is high and lofty. The phrase is not restricted to "persons," though it embraces them. But though the language here is general, the reference is doubtless, mainly, to the princes, magistrates, and nobility of the nation; and is designed not only to designate them as men of rank and power, but as men who were haughty in their demeanour and feelings. At the same time, there is included in the language, as the subsequent verses show, all on which the nation prided itself.
For the day of the Lord of hosts,.... Which is peculiarly his, which he has fixed and appointed, and in which there will be a great display of the glory of his power and grace: this
shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low; either the day of his mighty power and efficacious grace shall be upon them to convert them; when they who thought themselves in a good estate, rich, and standing in need of nothing, shall now perceive themselves to be in a very poor, wretched, and miserable one; and when such who have trusted in and boasted of their own righteousness, and despised others, and would not submit to the righteousness of Christ; shall now renounce their own, and gladly embrace his; and when those who prided themselves with their free will, strength, and power, will now find that they can do nothing of themselves, and without Christ, his Spirit and grace; and such, who fancied that their own right hand could save them, will now see that there is salvation in no other but Christ, and will prostrate themselves before him, and seek unto him alone for peace, pardon, righteousness, and eternal life: or else this means the day of the Lord's vengeance on his proud and haughty enemies, who would not have him to reign over them; these shall be as stubble, when the day of the Lord, which will burn like an oven, will consume and destroy them, Malachi 4:1.
Man has had many days: "the day of the Lord" shall come at last, beginning with judgment, a never-ending day in which God shall be "all in all" (1-Corinthians 15:28; 2-Peter 3:10).
every--not merely person, as English Version explains it, but every thing on which the nation prided itself.
The expression "that day" suggests the inquiry, What day is referred to? The prophet answers this question in the second strophe. "For Jehovah of hosts hath a day over everything towering and lofty, and over everything exalted; and it becomes low." "Jehovah hath a day" (yom layehovah), lit., there is to Jehovah a day, which already exists as a finished divine thought in that wisdom by which the course of history is guided (Isaiah 37:26, cf., Isaiah 22:11), the secret of which He revealed to the prophets, who from the time of Obadiah and Joel downwards proclaimed that day with one uniform watchword. But when the time appointed for that day should arrive, it would pass out of the secret of eternity into the history of time - a day of world-wide judgment, which would pass, through the omnipotence with which Jehovah rules over the hither as well as lower spheres of the whole creation, upon all worldly glory, and it would be brought low (shaphel). The current accentuation of Isaiah 2:12 is wrong; correct MSS have על with mercha, כל־נשׂא with tifcha. The word v'shâphel (third pers. praet. with the root-vowel ee) acquires the force of a future, although no grammatical future precedes it, from the future character of the day itself: "and it will sink down" (Ges. 126, 4).
The day - The time of God's taking vengeance upon sinners.
*More commentary available at chapter level.